When we first started home educating, GCSEs were one of the things I worried about most. How would Evie actually take them if she wasn’t in school? Where would she sit exams? Which GCSEs should we choose, and how much would it all cost? I had no idea about how the private candidate system worked. Having now been through the whole process, these are the things I wish someone had explained to me at the beginning.

Can home-educated children take GCSEs?

Yes. Home educated children can take GCSEs and iGCSEs, but instead of being entered for the exams by a school, they will usually sit them as private candidates. As a parent, this means you need to find an exam centre that accepts private candidates and arrange the exam entries yourself.

How do you find an exam centre for a private candidate?

Finding an exam centre was one of the things I didn’t realise I would need to organise myself. Not every school or exam centre accepts private candidates, and centres can offer different exam boards and subjects. We were lucky to find an exam centre that became a really important part of our journey. Evie got to know the centre, the rooms and the people there, which helped take away some of the uncertainty on exam days.

A useful starting point is the JCQ private candidate search tool, which can help you find centres that accept private candidates. I would recommend contacting centres as early as possible and asking which subjects and exam boards they offer, what their fees are, and whether they can support any access arrangements your child may need.

How do you choose which GCSEs or iGCSEs to take?

One of the biggest things I learned was that we didn’t have to recreate the GCSE timetable Evie would have followed at school. We could think about which subjects she actually needed for what she wanted to do next, which subjects suited her, and how many qualifications were realistic for her. That gave us much more flexibility than I had initially realised.

For us, this meant choosing a mixture of GCSEs and iGCSEs and spreading some of the exams out rather than taking everything at the end of Year 11. Before choosing a subject, I would also check where your child hopes to go next. A college or course my have particular entry requirements, so knowing those before you make your final choices can save problems later.

If iGCSEs are new to you, I’ve also written about what we learned when we first discovered iGCSEs as a home-educating family.

How much does it cost to take GCSEs as a private candidate?

This was one of the surprises for me. When your child is home educated, you will usually have to pay the exam centre to enter them as a private candidate. The amount can vary depending on subject, qualification and centre, so it is worth comparing costs before booking. There may also be additional charges for things such as access arrangements or practical components, depending on the qualification and centre. I’ve written separately about what our GCSE and iGCSE exam fees actually cost us as a home educating family.

What about extra time and access arrangements?

If your child needs extra time, a reader, a scribe or another access arrangement – maybe laptop use like Evie – speak to the exam centre as early as possible. The centre is responsible for putting the arrangements in place and will need to make sure your child meets the relevant requirements. Don’t leave this until exam time – tell the centre about your child’s needs when you are arranging exam entry. We needed to pay to have an assessor come in and sit with Evie whilst she carried out some learning activities.

When should you book GCSE exams as a private candidate?

I would start looking for an exam centre well before you think you need to. Centres have their own booking processes and deadlines, and places for private candidates can be limited. Finding your centre early also gives you time to check that they offer the exact qualification and exam board your child is studying, rather than discovering a problem close to the exams.

What I wish I’d known before starting GCSEs at home

Looking back, I wish I had known that we didn’t have to work everything out at once. You don’t need to recreate school at home, choose every qualification immediately or follow exactly the same timetable as everyone else. We made decisions as we went along, changed things when we needed to and learned a huge amount in the process. The important thing was finding a route that worked for Evie and kept the door open for what she wanted to do next.

If you’re at the beginning of this process and feeling overwhelmed, I completely understand. I was there too. You don’t need to have the whole journey mapped out today. Start with what your child needs now, find out what they might need for their next step, and work forwards from there.

You can also read about what happened when Evie finally finished her homeschool GCSE exams and we started thinking about what came next.

I hope sharing what we learned makes the process feel a little less daunting.

Laura x

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash